Rewarding higher marks with money doesn’t make the grade

News Release

TORONTO, Nov. 19 /CNW/ - Offering cold, hard cash to students in an effort to improve their marks in college or university may be more expensive than it is effective.

While many an enterprising parent has at least considered rewarding good grades with money, a new study commissioned by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) finds the approach has modest overall effects.

"In its efforts to help disadvantaged students by exploring the idea of paying them to attend school, the Toronto District School Board is asking the same question many other jurisdictions are asking about how to improve student participation and performance," says Harvey Weingarten, president and CEO of HEQCO. "Our study and others to date indicate that this particular strategy has minimal effect if any in those situations where it has been tested."

The goal of the "Opportunity Knocks" Supplemental Merit Scholarship Project http://www.heqco.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/OK_ENG.pdf was to learn more about the potential for financial incentives as motivation for improved academic performance. The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Toronto, OISE/UT and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, involved first- and second-year university students receiving financial aid in 2008-2009.

All first-year and second-year students on financial aid at the university studied were invited to participate. Those selected by lottery into the study were given money for obtaining course grades above 70 per cent. They were also given free access to regular peer advising services to discuss academic matters as well as issues arising from campus life. For each one-semester course, students received $100 for obtaining a grade average of 70 per cent, and $20 for each percentage point above a grade of 70 per cent.

Before the study got underway, participants, on average, indicated that they expected the program to be somewhat helpful in improving their grades. Well over half of the participants said they were very concerned about having sufficient funds to complete their university degree.

The results show that the financial incentives had a modest positive effect on grades, and had very small positive effects in the subsequent year, after the financial offer ended. The authors note, however, that the effects were stronger for those participants who had a better understanding of how the financial reward program worked.

While the program was popular with participants and both sign-up rates and engagement were high, the modest impact on student achievement is consistent with other studies evaluating interventions of this type. The authors characterize financial incentives as "an expensive approach for trying to generate modest effects on retention and performance." They acknowledge that different incentive schemes, such as offering larger amounts of money or rewarding improvement on grades that are lower than 70 per cent, might lead to stronger effects.

"The authors suggest that ineffective study habits may be a barrier to academic achievement and that the real issue may be more a lack of academic preparation than a lack of effort or motivation. They note that the availability of peer advising does not appear to have helped extensively. They conclude that other potential avenues for improving performance, or alternative approaches to teaching, are needed at the high school and postsecondary levels.

The study was conducted by Joshua Angrist, Department of Economics, MIT; Tony Chambers, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto; Philip Oreopoulos, Department of Economics, University of Toronto; and Tyler Williams, Department of Economics, MIT.

About the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario is an arm's-length agency of the Government of Ontario dedicated to ensuring the continued improvement of the postsecondary education system in Ontario. The Council was created through the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario Act, 2005. It is mandated to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system, and provide policy recommendations to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities with a view to enhance the quality, access, and accountability of Ontario's higher education system.

Tony Chambers is an Assistant Professor of higher education in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies at OISE. Professor Chambers joined the University of Toronto in 2005 after holding various academic and senior administrative positions in the United States, most recently at the University of Michigan where he was associate director of the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good and adjunct professor in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education. He currently teaches a course on the Student Experience in Postsecondary Education within the Higher Education Program at OISE. Professor Chambers’ research has included topics such as leadership in higher education, improving the quality of the student experience, activism as a form of leadership and student development as well as understanding cultural differences and discrimination, with a view toward transformation.